The Standing Group on Local Government and Politics (ECPR) and the European Urban Research Association (EURA) are happy to endorse this year’s Summer School, organized and hosted by the Research Group of Local Government at the University of Barcelona. 

The 2024 summer school, following a one-year hiatus without the opportunity to meet, aims to offer an open platform for PhD students with diverse subfields and methodological approaches to engage in discussions about their projects with both peers and experienced scholars. The Summer School will feature inspiring lectures from members of the local government studies community, offering forward-looking perspectives on our field of study. Discussion sessions will allow PhD candidates to present and discuss their work, with selected discussants from various fields and their peers providing valuable input to enrich each other's work. 

From both territorial and conceptual dimensions, discussions about boundaries have long been a central debate in the field of Local Government. The presence of small rural units, fragmented maps, and the metropolitan continuums, along with various possible arrangements for addressing these realities, has sparked intense debates. Simultaneously, the emergence of new areas of research and interest, ranging from AI to climate change, represents a significant shift from traditional areas of analysis in local studies.